10 Ways To Make Your Business ‘Greener’

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Make your Banff, Alberta Business better for the Environment

The fact is that it is not only good for the environment but also ultimately profitable for your business to think green. Gone are the days when backs were turned on shady businessmen dumping toxins. The successful business must move with the times and especially in the wilderness that is the Canadian Rockies, that means reducing your carbon footprint. Here are ten simple and useful tips to help you achieve this:

1. Turn off equipment when it’s not being used. So simple, so useful. This reduces energy by 25% and if you turn computers off at the end of the day, this can save 50%.

2. Encourage communications by email. If it doesn’t need to be printed, don’t print it.

3. Reduce fax-related paper waste by using a fax-modem and by using a fax cover sheet only when necessary. Faxes can be sent straight from the computer without the need for hard paper at all.

4. Produce double-sided documents whenever possible.

5. Do not leave taps dripping; a small drip now and again may not seem so bad but one drop wasted per second wastes 10,000 litres per year.

6. Install displacement toilet dams in toilet reservoirs. Placing one or two plastic containers filled with stones [not bricks] in the toilet’s reservoir will displace about 4 litres of water per flush – considering the amount of effort needed to complete this task; this is a huge reduction of water use over the course of a year.

7. Use the best paper with maximum available recycled content.

8. Choose the right suppliers who take back packaging for reuse. Saves everyone time and money.

9. Instigate an ongoing search for “greener” products and services in the local community. Always choose local if the prices are competitive. It’s good for your community, gives the business a good name and also means that products won’t have to be shipped from long distances causing more pollution to the atmosphere.

10. Before deciding whether you need to purchase new office furniture, see if your existing office furniture can be refurbished. It’s less expensive than buying new, you won’t need to pay for the transport and it is better for the environment.

As you can see from this list, you don’t have to take on the world single handed to do your part. The tasks are simple and usually good for saving money too. In the long run, your business as well as the environment will prosper.